Gothic folklore met modern dentistry, with the whole world watching. This was the World Cup and the Bite of Brazil — a mouthwatering, open-jawed, succulent chomp on an unsuspecting victim that would have done proud any vampire worth his cape.

NEW YORK — The police killings of unarmed blacks in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere — and the investigations and tumultuous protests they inspired — was the top news story of 2014, according to The Associated Press’ annual poll of U.S. editors and...

Meb Keflezighi strode alone down Boylston Street, past the patched-up sidewalks and re-opened restaurants that line the path to the Boston Marathon finish line. On his race bib he had the names of those killed there by a pair of homemade bombs, and...